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Runoff election scheduled for Monday

The campaign for student body president and vice president will continue until Monday after the Judicial Council announced that no ticket succeeded in winning a majority of the total vote.

A runoff election between junior Olivia LaMagna and her running mate, sophomore Rohan Andresen, and juniors Lauren Vidal and Matthew Devine will be held Monday, Judicial Council president and senior Michael Masi said.

Zach Llorens

“The rules are you have to receive over 50 percent of the vote; you have to have a majority,” Masi said. “Neither ticket tonight got a majority so it proceeds to a runoff between the two top vote-getters.”

LaMagna and Andresen edged out Vidal and Devine by 15 out of 3,748 valid votes, according to the Judicial Council results. LaMagna’s ticket garnered 1,641 votes, 43.78 percent of the total, and Vidal’s won 1,626 votes and 43.38 percent.

“Right now, we won by a margin of 15 votes so we’re going to have a runoff,” Andresen said. “Monday’s going to be the election. We’re going to start campaigning immediately.”

LaMagna said she and Andresen were “ready to win.” Andresen said they would begin printing more posters tonight and updating social media with the news of the runoff.

“We were exhausted about 10 minutes ago, and now we’re so pumped up,” he said.

Vidal said she hoped the runoff would allow the student body extra time to read and better understand each ticket’s platform.

“We’re excited to campaign,” she said. “We’re excited that people are going to have more exposure to our platform and some of our ideas. We feel that the students really need to take a look at the platforms and really compare and make an educated decision.”

Freshmen George McCabe and Sean Campbell, the third ticket, earned 7.74 percent of the total with 290 votes.

191 voters abstained, and 290 votes were discarded as invalid, according to the Judicial Council results.

Voter turnout reached 45 percent, less than the “upwards of 70 or 80 percent” Masi said he hoped for. Students can vote again Monday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Masi said. The election took place online through a GoogleDoc system.

“The same rules apply,” he said. “There’s a debate on Sunday in the LaFortune basement.”

Lesley Stevenson is a senior news writer for The Observer after previously serving as News Editor and an Assistant Managing Editor. She is a senior from Memphis, Tennessee, studying Film, Television and Theatre (FTT) and American Studies and living in Breen-Phillips Hall. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @lcstevenson, and visit her website at lcstevenson.wordpress.com